


A New Life

by bridgebeingbridge



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Borrowers - Freeform, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, G/T, GT, Giant mccree, Giants, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Macro/Micro, Micro, Overwatch - Freeform, Size Difference, TINY - Freeform, borrower, extreme size difference, g/t au, giant, giant!mccree, gt au, jesse mccree - Freeform, macro, mccree - Freeform, micro/macro, pocket people, pocket sized, tinies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 21:44:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11929878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bridgebeingbridge/pseuds/bridgebeingbridge
Summary: In a world where borrowers, aka mouse sized people, were discovered by humans and are now kept as pets, Jesse McCree, struggling with alcoholism after Overwatch's collapse, finds himself compelled to help a borrower with her struggles fighting against schizophrenia. (This fic is complete and utter shameful OC insert, so if that isn't your thing, don't read).





	A New Life

“Hey now. Hey darlin’. There ain't no need to squeak n’ squeal like that, I ain't gonna hurt ya.”

McCree wasn’t really sure what to do. He’d bought this borrower at the advice of an old friend he had recently run into, who also so happened to be a doctor, Angela.

Jesse had a serious drinking problem going on. He had always loved beer and liquor, but after Overwatch was disbanded... things had started to get out of hand. McCree was lonely, he had lost all of his coworkers, his friends – no, his _family_ \- and what happened to Gabe was just… it was too much. So, the cowboy turned to drinking to soothe his aching heart.

It worked - but only for a short while.

At first it was lovely, just a few sips of the magic potion and he was feeling relaxed, his worries numbed. Jokes seemed to be twice as funny all of a sudden, and his loneliness completely disappeared - but the best and most addicting part was how his confidence would soar sky high, it was such an amazing, euphoric feeling. The whole world fell out of focus, yes, but it also felt beautifully bright and vibrant and alive.

So, he drank more and more, visiting the same damn bar almost every same damn day, getting utterly trashed each night. Slowly he started to become more and more dependent on alcohol. He drank 24/7, always carrying some booze on his person in a flask, or stashing it all over wherever he was staying (he never stayed in one place for long, moving from motel to motel). Almost all his money went towards liquor, and he was starting to have very little cash to his name. Even worse, slowly the alcohol began to lose its magic and wizardry. It stopped giving him that lovely warm feeling, it stopped giving him joy and confidence. Instead, he needed it, needed it to not feel lonely, or depressed, or insecure. Drinking became a tedious necessity, and if he didn’t have it he felt awful - he became much more aware of how lonely he was, and it crushed his aching heart. He just had to have it, and without it he was certain he would go insane.

At the rate he was going, he was going to ruin his liver and kidneys, and even Angela wouldn’t be able to fix them. He knew this, and he was getting more and more concerned with himself. He needed to stop, before this downward spiral of his got any bigger or deeper.

So, when he bumped into the medic by chance, after a long while talking with her about - well, almost everything that had happened after Overwatch was disbanded, he decided, with a deep, hesitant breath, to tell her he had been drinking too much. Of course, he didn’t tell her how bad his drinking problem actually was; he just lightly hinted that he was drinking a little too much.

When he confessed there was an understanding compassion in her eyes. He could tell she knew he wasn’t being completely honest about just how big his problem was, but despite that he felt at peace with her knowing that, he didn’t regret confessing. Mercy always had been such a – simply a good listener, a swell friend, and overall a great person.

Her suggested solution to his problem wasn't what he expected. She recommended getting a pet. More specifically, a borrower. They were apparently supposed to be therapeutic.

Her suggestion had him taken aback. A borrower? Well, he supposed he always did think the little guys were cute.

Borrowers had been kept by mankind for centuries. Humans in all sorts of cultures used to farm and either eat them or keep them as pets, sometimes both, but usually the two of those things were reserved for the upper class. Things regarding borrowers had changed during McCree’s time, though. They were still considered a delicacy for eating in certain countries, but in most places, it was taboo to eat them, unthinkable, just like eating a dog or a horse or a cat was. Instead they were kept as pets, sold in pet shops and up for adoption in rescue centers. They were no longer just for the higher class, instead anyone could keep them.

McCree scratched his beard while Ziegler explained how helpful a borrower could be to him. The medic even told him she had one of her own, a female called Fareeha. He could tell by the way she talked about her borrower that she truly adored the minuscule creature. McCree had to admit when Mercy described how Fareeha had changed her life, having one of the tiny people around sounded nice. They sounded very – well, cute, to put it simply. Once Mercy was done talking about borrowers they parted, and the gunslinger was still thinking about everything they had talked about.

Jesse was lonely. He had no one to talk to anymore, no one to go out with. The most he got when it came to communicating with others was talking with the bartender at his regular bar, or the occasional stranger. He had no one to call a friend, to call his. He was just so damn alone. Maybe having a borrower around could fix that? After all, they were just like people, which meant they could talk and everything.

But they were a lot of responsibility too, much more than something like a dog - and what if he was a bad owner? However, when he had brought up those worries, Mercy had reassured him it would be just fine, giving firm and positive answers to all of his questions and concerns.

After much mulling and musing, the cowboy decided he would stop by a pet shop and take a peek at the borrowers. Maybe that would help him decide whether to get one or not.

His spurs jingling, he wandered down the street and into his nearest pet shop, a little bell sounding out as he opened the door. He tilted his hat up a little bit in order to get a better look as he headed towards the tanks where animals were kept. Hamsters, mice, gerbils… aha! Borrowers!

There were two tanks, labeled male and female. McCree leaned his face down a little and peered into the glass.

The borrowers in the tanks all raced to the glass when McCree got close. They jumped around excitedly and chirped and chattered while climbing over each other to see the newcomer outside their tank, their miniature hands spread against the glass. He smiled softly, boy were they cute. Real precious.

It seemed they were all desperate to get adopted – and he couldn’t blame them as he looked around their dismal glass tank. It was pretty crowded, and what’s more, bland. There was bedding and some hidey holes, and that was it. On top of that, it was poorly lit too.

A pit started to form in Jesse’s stomach.

The more he looked into the tank, the more – _wrong_ the whole thing felt.

He could hear the borrowers talking to each other. Just like humans would. Apart from their size, they seemed to look completely human. They clearly acted like humans too, if they could talk and everything. He could hear them joking with each other, he could see them hugging, sharing food together, and he even saw them brush each other’s hair with tiny combs they had been given. They clearly cared about each other, just like humans cared about other humans.

At the end of the day, he couldn’t buy one of them. It was owning a person. Jesse shook his head. It was wrong. The whole thing was screwed up. They shouldn’t be sold like this, kept in a tiny tank and displayed as nothing more than property to be sold. Who knows what kinds of crazy people and families they could be sold to? Actually seeing them in person had made it all the more – well, personal, it made him realize they really were people, just tiny, that was the only difference between them and him. If he had been unlucky enough to be born their size, he knew he would have hated being kept like this. After actually seeing the captive borrowers, he certainly didn’t want to own one, he didn’t want to have a living, breathing person as his _property_ – the idea made him sick to his stomach. Plus, he also especially didn’t want one since he didn’t want to split them up from their friends, and nor did he want to give profit to those who were selling them.

He wasn’t about to voice his disgust and start a stir, and he was done looking, so he turned on his heel, about to head out. But there was something else that was wrong. Something that caught his eye, making him turn back around and glance inside the glass a second time. One borrower in the female tank. It – no, _she_. She was in the back corner, crying, trembling and looking around frantically, her eyes as wide as marbles.

After staring at her for a while, McCree was puzzled. He couldn’t figure out why she looked so frightened. At first he thought maybe he was scaring her, but while her eyes darted everywhere, they didn’t meet his once. It seemed something else was bothering her… but what exactly?

Frowning, he walked further down the aisle to see a worker restocking the shelves with pet food, standing on a wooden stool. He cleared his throat and spoke up.

“I think somethin’s wrong with one of yer borrowers.”

The wage earner turned their head and stepped down from the stool.

“Oh? Which borrower is it?”

McCree glanced into the tank, taking another look.

“The red headed girl, with all the freckles. Look.” He pointed to her. “Shes tremblin’ and cryin’.”

“Oh, we get that a lot.” The employee replied.

Jesse blinked, as if to say “Excuse me?”

The store keeper explained.

“She’s… not exactly right in the head. Really she’s lucky to not have been put down yet, to be frank, since her meds cost us a fortune and she was bought and then returned a while later.”

_Yet..?_

“What do you mean by not righ’?”

“Well, she has some form of… whatever the borrower equivalent of schizophrenia is.”

McCree was stunned for a moment, prompting the worker to reply.

“It’s a disease where someone hallucinates and has delusions-”

“Ah, I know what it is pardner. I’m jus’… surprised they can get that.”

He had no idea borrowers could have those kind of disorders… but the more he thought about it, the more he realized his surprise was foolish. Of course they could have disorders like that, what with being so similar to humans and everything.

Once the surprise left his mind he replied again.

“Oh well… don’ her meds help?”

Sighing, the store worker replied.

“They do help for the most part, but she gets occasional breakthrough episodes. We don’t know why.”

McCree went straight back to retreating into his thoughts, brow furrowed and staring directly ahead blankly as he thought. Eventually he piped up.

“So… you said she's lucky she hasn’t been put down, simple enough. Exactly how long has she got left here?”

The employee shifted, uncomfortable at the prospect of telling the cold hard truth. With a thick, slightly nervous swallow he spoke up.

“Uh… we have a date for the appointment. It’s exactly two weeks from now.” He shrugged. “I know it seems harsh but… it’s a business, we can’t afford to keep funneling money into her.”

Jesse felt shocked at just how disgusting the whole situation was, while the stranger meanwhile simply went back to stocking the shelves. It didn't take him long to make up his mind. 

“I want her.”

They turned to look at him.

“Are you sure-”

“Yes. I want to buy a lil’ carrier to keep her in, and a bed. Be a real champ and help me get everythin’ I’ll need to look after her together, yeah?”

After a few minutes McCree had bought everything he needed for her and was walking out of the shop with a panicked borrower squeaking away inside the carrier he had also bought. She had seemed to not like being taken out of the tank which housed her, squealing, squirming, and biting too - although her teeth were just like a human's, blunt, they had really done a number on the worker who had handled her. Jesse decided maybe he would use his metal hand to pick her up, or at least make sure he was wearing his glove.

With a sigh, he began to walk back to the hotel he was staying in, borrower in tow.


End file.
